Sparks in the Mainframe, A Doctor Who Fanfic
by horsesrock8
Summary: My name is Stephanie Tucker. For the first fourteen years of my life, I was just like any other teenager. Then he came. Sequel to 'Steph's Story'.
1. Chapter 1

"You're not my mother

"You're not my mother."

The words had pierced the poor woman's heart. Steph had immediately regretted them, but she couldn't take them back. The damage was already done. The woman lowered her eyes, and walked away. Later that week, Steph was back where she had started. But she didn't care, not really. There was no where on this planet she truly belonged. It was a cold hard fact of life, one that had begun to destroy Steph from the inside.

"Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie. What will we ever do with you?" The social worker had sighed, running her hand through her hair.

Steph had continued to stare at her plate, ignoring the less than displeased expression on the woman's face, as she sat in the foster centre.

"Why does it never work out with all those lovely parents? So many people willing to give you a nice home and you alienate all of them! Steph, will you ever tell me what's going on in your head?" The social worker stared at the young girl sitting across from her on the table.

Steph didn't meet her gaze. She just continued to look at her plate. The social worker shook her head and turned back to her own dinner, but she didn't see the small tear that was running down the young girl's face.

_She opened the TARDIS doors, and took once last look behind her at the two aliens and their ship._

"_Won't ever forget you!" Called Rose._

"_Neither will I!" Added the Doctor, pulling a wide grin._

_Steph grinned at them and stepped out onto the lawn, closing the doors behind her. She turned and watched as that familiar wind and sound rushed by her._

"_You can bet on it." _

Those words were the most honest thing Steph had ever said in her entire life. She missed them then, she missed them now. Over the months, Steph had come to realise that more than anything, she wanted to see the two aliens that had utterly destroyed her life.

About four months earlier, Steph had been leading a normal life. She was just like any other fourteen year old; she went to school, she had lots of friends, and everyday she would come home to two loving parents. Despite all the troubles of a teenage life, Steph had it good. But then the Doctor came.

Steph was thrust, unwillingly into a great battle that would decide her own life. The Doctor revealed to her that she was actually an alien, a being from another world, who had been sent to earth in order to avoid a holocaust on her own planet. All of her family, her world, was dead. The parents that Steph had been coming home to everyday had adopted her when she was only weeks old. If that was shocking enough, she was also being hunted.

A species of alien, known as Ethae, were hunting her. She provided a source of power, which would enable them to leave Earth and find a Cyl, a living star. They were prepared to kill her in order to save themselves. The Doctor managed to stop them, just in time. He had offered them a chance to find a Cyl, without killing Steph, but by this time, her adoptive parents had already been murdered by their ruthless leader, while searching for Steph.

Then the Doctor had gone. He left Steph to deal with the aftermath of the battle. The very pieces of her life that had been destroyed were the very ones that Steph had depended on. How the Doctor expected her to recover, she didn't know. All that she did was that somehow, she had to make it through life. She had to get off Earth.

This realisation hadn't happened over night. It took two months to realise that she couldn't give up, she couldn't just stand there, a blank slate for the rest of her life. Trying to pick up the pieces was a noble enough cause, but there was a better one. But by the time Steph finally woke up to herself, she had almost completely lost everyone and everything she had ever cared about.

All of her friends, the family of her first adoptive parents, shunned her. She had retreated into nothingness, and for two months she alienated all of them, preferring to stay in her bedroom and descend further into her own despair. By the time she realised what she had done, no one wanted to be near her.

Because her first adoptive parents had been killed, Steph had been going from family to family, never staying for very long. Perhaps it was that she new that she wasn't like them physically, or she never wanted to accept them as a new family. Steph didn't know. But she could never get along with any of them. It was the same each time. They could never be her parents, her real parents died, so very long ago. So Steph went from family to family, never staying long. It drove the foster home social workers mad. But Steph didn't care, not really.


	2. Chapter 2

"Stephanie Tucker

"Stephanie Tucker! What on EARTH do you think you are doing!?"

Steph froze in her seat. Her fingers stopped their frantic typing on the keyboard. Grimacing, she slowly she pushed her chair away from the computer, got up and turned to face her teacher. His expression was murderous. Steph gulped. Not good.

"Mrs Tucker, you're child was caught attempting to hack into the teacher's work mainframe at school today-"

"I don't really think that she knew what she was doing-"

"Please let me finish. Mr and Mrs Tucker, your child knew what she was doing; she was fully aware that no students should ever read the exam answers in the school database. Further more, we believe that she is also responsible for the other hacks made into the database over the past three months-"

"But if no students can get into the database and read these documents, how did she so readily access this important and confidential information? Are there not any passwords or firewalls to prevent students from getting in?"

"Somehow she managed to get passed a secure website without putting in any passwords!"

"I think that this is highly unlikely…She _is_ only fourteen years old…"

Steph sat in the seat outside the principal's office, listening to her teacher and her parents yell at each other. But she wasn't all that upset about it; after all, this was a regular event.

In year four, she managed to start a small fire in the kitchens, after forgetting to turn off the gas. Year six, she was caught taking apart the television in a spare classroom ("I wanted to see how it works!"), year seven, she built a machine in the technology rooms that was capable of shooting fire, and for most of year 8 she had been hacking into the school database on a regular basis. But she got caught for that too.

The doors of the princial's office suddenly flew open, revealing her furious parents.

"Steph, we're leaving!" Barked her mother, making Steph jump.

She quickly got up from her seat and raced after her mother and father. She quickly got in the car as they sped off.

"I'm-"

"Sorry!?" Finished her father for her.

He turned around in the car to stare at Steph in the backseat. She quickly averted her eyes, and stared at the carpet. For some reason the fibres on the floor had suddenly become incredibly interesting.

"Steph…How many times do you have to get into trouble? This is the second time this year, and it's only been three months! Please…can't you just concentrate on something other than getting into trouble? How many times Steph? How many until you grow up!"

Steph stayed in her room for most of that night, not daring to come out and face her parents. She felt a pang of guilt, not for hacking into the database, but for getting caught. She had been so sure that no teacher would catch her…

Sighing, Steph jumped off her bed and turned on the light at her desk, illuminating the various pictures that had been rather crudly attached to it. They were of her family, her mother and father waving from outside the front of their house, her pet cat, Snookers (who at this very moment was curled up purring on Steph's bed) and her friends. Steph had a lot of friends. She was always the excited one, the crazy one who could always make people laugh. This fun loving attitude drew people to Steph, and as a result she always had a packed house on Saturdays, when they all came over for their weekly sleepover.

_Which probably won't happen, _thought Steph. Her parents needed to punish her, and they knew the best way was to curb her social life. Although she didn't really have a very close best friend, her big group was always fantastic to her. Steph groaned to herself as she realised that missing out on a Saturday night sleepover meant she would be completely out of the loop on Monday, as everyone came to school repeating the events from the 'totally awesome, fun, fantastic time' they had had.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Steph needed to start concentrating on planning her next idea. No more hacking school databases, she can just study the old fashioned way. No, the next thing she was going to get was a job. Steph needed the money. A measly 5 of pocket money (which would probably disappear as part of her punishment) a week was _not_ going very far. Steph had big plans on what she would spend the money on.

But, as usual, there was quite a number of obstacles that stood in her way. This time though, it was only two. Age and parents. Problem one was easily sorted with a fake birthday and a smile. Problem two was going to be infinitely more difficult.

Turning on the computer on her desk, she began searching through various employment sites.

_This could take a while, _she thought to herself.

Two weeks later, Steph was starting a brand new job at the Crepe Café, under the guise of 'netball practise' for her parents, and 'the age of fifteen' for her boss. It seemed as though Steph had her life totally under _her _control.

How very wrong she was.


	3. Chapter 3

Getting off Earth was now Steph's main priority

Getting off Earth was now Steph's main priority. She knew she didn't belong here, she wasn't human. Even though no one could even guess that she was any different was the next fourteen year old kid, Steph didn't fit in. It was a drastic change from a couple of months ago. Steph was surprised by how dramatically her ideals and opinions of the world around her had altered. She needed to find somewhere else, anything other than the life she has here. The only problem was she didn't know how. How do you get off earth when the only alien you've ever met was now gone forever?

That very question was the sole occupant of Steph's life.

It was late at night when Steph decided to sneak onto the social worker's computer, again.

"Come on…" Muttered Steph under her breath as she searched the internet, which was for the fourth time that day (she had also gained access to other computers, at the owners' expense. But searching for a way off Earth was an important enough reason to sneak on, surely?) She was looking for any references, anything even remotely related to the Doctor. It was the only alien thing she knew, apart from herself of course.

"There has to be something…"

Scrolling down the page, she spotted a website with the heading _We Are Not Alone_.

During her searches, Steph had founds loads of conspiracy sites, all relating to some alien event that was supposed to have happened in England; London specifically. Steph had never been to London, or England, or any other country for that matter. This website was centred in the United Kingdom.

_Might as well have a look_, thought Steph.

She clicked it open and was immediately blasted with various images of what appeared to be a rock floating in the sky, a star shooting electricity at people and the Titanic over Buckingham palace. They looked fairly fake, but then again, there had been Cyberman attack a few years ago. Steph was up visiting her uncle in the country, far away from any of those factories. She was never in any real danger, and they all disappeared pretty quickly for some reason. She scrolled around a little more, and then an article down the bottom of the page caught her attention. It was entitled TORCHWOOD: What They're Not Telling Us.

Raising her eyebrows slightly in surprise, then cautiously opened it up.

_TORCHWOOD: What They're Not Telling Us_

_You've seen it all! All those weird and crazy things that have been happening all over the country; the alien ship in the sky on Christmas Day; the Christmas Star the next year; the Titanic over Buckingham palace; the ship that crashed into the Thames after destroying Big Ben; the sky full of Daleks; the Tochlefane! Why does no one want to believe that this is really happening? Why is the government so secretive about everything that seems even slightly out of the ordinary? I'll tell you why, they don't want anyone to know about their most secret program, TORCHWOOD. _

_TORCHWOOD is made up of a team of people who "fight" all things alien, and refuse to tell the people the truth! They are responsible for all these alien attacks, and no one is told! The government is putting the entire world at risk because of this TORCHWOOD._

_Their aim is to 'protect' us from these alien threats, but do they ask the people what they want? No! They don't want anyone to know that aliens really exist; the whole thing is a giant cover up!_

_All through history, ever since 1879, the name TORCHWOOD has been popping up. This secret organisation is been involved with every single alien event that has ever happened to this planet. Sure, the government says that they managed to thwart every supposed 'attack' on earth, but it is actually their own fault that this happened!_

_We, as people of the Earth, need to stand up and defend our rights! People need to know what is happening; people need to demand to know what is happening!_

Despite the fact that the article sounded like it had been written by a crack-pot, it did have a point. There _had_ been a lot of 'alien' events happening in the world recently. Steph laughed silently to herself when she realised that she had actually been the cause of the last one.

Suddenly the screen turned black.

"What the..." Muttered Steph.

Then, just as quickly as it had diappeared, her computer turned back on. Steph lifted her hands far away from the keyboard.

_I did not do that._ She thought.

Steph stared at it for a while, confused, but in the end she moved on.

_Probably just a blip in the system; it is reallly old..._

She clicked out of the website and looked around in others, but the name Torchwood stuck in her mind like glue. There was something odd about that kind of name, like something she had heard before. She continued to browse around in the other websites, and in almost every single one, the name Torchwood popped up. She continued her search up until the early hours of the morning, before finally turning off the computer and going to sleep.

Steph stayed at the foster care centre for a couple of weeks. She was still forced to attend school, something she hated. No one knew that she was an alien, and she wasn't about to tell them.

But it was frustrating. Pretending to be human wasn't hard; up until three months ago she didn't know she was any different from anyone else! But Steph's opinions of the world around her had suddenly changed; she viewed everything in a different light, which confused her. She wasn't used to seeing things from the way they used to be. All that was once simple, was now complicated. Anything out of the ordinary, she questioned. Anything strange, she questioned. All the time, looking; hunting for a way to escape.

Steph sat on the hard seats of a tram, her bag bumping against her knee in time with the tram's jerky movements as it travelled along the road. Her eyes stared out the window, her mind lost in thought. She blinked, and brought herself back to reality. Sighing, she leant down and opened her bag, and pulled out a rather worn out old jumper and pulled it over her school uniform. She smiled and rubbed the worn out material between her fingers. She sighed and closed her eyes. This old jumper was the only link to something greater than Steph had ever known to exist. She opened her eyes again, only to almost fall out of her chair out of shock.

"Doctor!" She breathed.

a tall, lanky man in a pinstriped suit swept across the street in front of the tram, his long brown coat flapping behind him. A young woman with brown hair and dark skin followed closely behind. It wasn't Rose. Still, Steph leapt up from her seat and banged her fists on the glass.

"Doctor!" She squealed.

The Doctor paused on the pavement, and turned around, as though he had thought he heard his name, but wasn't sure. His eyes met Steph's for a brief moment, before the young woman, who had gone ahead, turned around and called out to him. He turned back to her and continued on.

"No! Wait!" Cried Steph.

"Oi! Love! Stop banging on the windows or I'll call the police!" Barked the tram driver.

Steph jumped back from the window and suddenly realised the whole tram was staring at her, including a few younger students from her school. She grimaced slightly when she saw their looks of utter shock, but dismissed it. She'll deal with school yard rumours later, this was infinitely more important.

"Stop the tram! I have to get off!" She yelled.

The driver yelled an indiscernible word and cranked on the brakes. The doors flew open and Steph leapt out, and raced down the street the Doctor had gone down. Dodging various other sidewalk users, she raced down the road, her eyes searching desperately for the Doctor.

But no matter how far she ran; there was no sign of him. Terrified she had lost the only link to a greater existence, she ran on. A few hours later, Steph was forced to admit defeat. It was dark, and getting colder. She wandered back the way she came, but everything looked different at night. With a pang of annoyance, she realised that she had left her bag on the tram. Her bag contained all her school books, plus her mobile phone.

_Opps._

Steph shrugged it off and kept walking.

Looking around, she realised that she had no idea where she was. Steph had never been in this part of Melbourne before. It was very dark now, and cold. Steph only had her school dress on, plus her jumper, and neither was going to keep her very warm for long. The clouds in the sky didn't look very inviting either. Steph suddenly had the feeling that it would rain.

_Now that would really complete my day_, she grumbled under her breath.

Continuing down the street, she started to shiver. It was getting colder, plus the clouds were getting darker. She turned towards the most lit up road she could see, hoping that it was a main road, and she could catch a quick ride back to the foster centre on a bus or tram.

Wait, why should she? Steph didn't like it there, why should she go back? Why stay there, when she could go anywhere in the world? The idea began bubbling like wildfire in her mind...

"Hello love!"

Steph jumped as the sudden noise brought her out of her thoughts, and spun around to the source of the noise. A large man in a dark coat stood a few metres behind her, grinning and waving. Steph's heart skipped a beat, and could feel the blood rushing to her ears. Trying to remember anything and everything she could about self defence, Steph quickly turned away from the man and continued walking down the street, trying to ignore the fact that her hands had started to shake. She could hear snickering and footsteps behind her; and they were following. She swallowed nervously and walked faster. She looked straight ahead and tried desperately to ignore the fact that the footsteps were getting faster. Steph gulped as she spotted another man on the other side of the street. Her hands shook harder as he started walking slowly towards her, crossing the street in three large strides. Acting on impulse, she quickly turned off the street, and into a small alleyway. Steph instantly regretted it. It was dark. Very dark. The one thing she did remember about self defence was keep to the light. This was not light. She glanced behind herself again, checking to see if the men were still behind her. She couldn't see anyone.

Sighing in relief, her pace slowed. Perhaps they hadn't seen her? Wiggling her fingers to make sure that her hands hadn't completely frozen together, she started down the alleyway.

She checked behind herself again, just to be sure, and her heart nearly stopped. Two large men were walking down the alleyway behind her. Fight or flight? Flight. In about two seconds Steph had gone from walking pace to about 100kmph. Willing her stiff legs to go faster, she turned around the corner, and to her relief a bright street light showed at the end. Forgetting everything else, she sprinted towards it, her eyes gleaming with the hope of escape.

Then suddenly two large hairy arms appeared out of nowhere to knock Steph aside, into the alley wall. She cried out in pain and surprise, and tried to get up again. She was almost on her feet, dizzy and confused when two large hands pushed her backwards, losing all balance she had. She toppled back over again, falling into a large dirty puddle.

Steph looked up, dazed and terrified to see four large men standing around her. They were all grinning, with terrifying expressions in their eyes. One held a knife, the others just their bare hands. Steph's mind raced as she desperately searched for a way to escape. Her hands felt behind her, only to feel the cold hardness of a brick wall. She scanned for any sign of escape, but found none.

She was trapped. And this time, there was no Doctor to save her.


End file.
